The swarm of opinions

Having an opinion on everything seems to be an important aspect of life to the residents of this university. Whether you are a student who has to judge a course or lecturer, or a lecturer who reviews whether the scientific article of his ‘peer’ can withstand the test of criticism, or the manager who, through complicated forms, judges about the results and developments of his employees.

And besides all that, most residents also voluntarily review online stores, new gadgets, hotel beds, evening meals and whatnot.

But why? And what does it bring us? About these and many other questions about the sense and nonsense of the swarm of opinions that surrounds us, we bring you this summer special.

 

Six scientists tell us how much wiser we really get from all that reviewing.

In his farewell column, Giorgio Touburg pleads for abolishing student evaluations altogether.

Online, the university and all its aspects are often reviewed. In this anthology we look for the most gorgeous reviews.

Some students and employees are very experienced reviewers. EM spoke with some of them.

The review culture is not without danger, says philosopher Robin van den Akker. In this essay, he advocates a revaluation of the Good, True, and Clean.

This article will be published soon.

Tim de Mey, a theoretical philosopher, received a lot of feedback on his book The advantage of the doubt. The experience turned out to both educational and confrontational to De Mey.

Figures, evaluations and peer reviews: it can all be better.

This article will be published soon.

Columnist Moo Miero writes about prejudices, such as: “Why would you go to work if you can just be beautiful and earn money with doing utterly nothing?”